Harriet Martineau - Early Life

Early Life

The sixth of eight children, Harriet Martineau was born in Norwich, England, where her father was a manufacturer. Her mother was the daughter of a sugar refiner and a grocer. The family was of French Huguenot ancestry and professed Unitarian views. She was closest to her brother, James, who became a clergyman in the tradition of the English Dissenters. According to the writer Diana Postlethwaite, Harriet's relationship with her mother was strained and lacking affection, which contributed to views expressed in her later writing. Martineau claimed her mother abandoned her to a wet nurse.

Her ideals on domesticity and the "natural faculty for housewifery" as described in her piece, Household Education written in 1848, stemmed from her lack of nurture growing up. Martineau's mother was the antithesis of the warm and nurturing qualities which Harriet believed to be necessary for girls at an early age. Martineau's mother urged all her children to be well-read but at the same time, opposed female pedantics "with a sharp eye for feminine propriety and good manners. Her daughters could never be seen in public with a pen in their hand." Her mother strictly enforced proper feminine behavior, pushing her daughter to "hold a sewing needle" as well as the pen.

Martineau began losing her sense of taste and smell, becoming increasingly deaf at a young age and having to use an ear trumpet. It was the beginning of many health problems in her life. In 1821 she began to write anonymously for the Monthly Repository, a Unitarian periodical, and in 1823 she published Devotional Exercises and Addresses, Prayers and Hymns. Her father's business failed in 1829. At 27 years old, Martineau stepped out of feminine propriety in order to earn a living for her family. Along with her needlework, she began selling her articles to the Monthly Repository. Her first commissioned volume, Illustrations of Political Economy, was published in February 1832 and quickly became successful. Martineau agreed to compose monthly volumes for 24 months, each critiquing various political and economic affairs. She developed the multi-volume work as a fictional tutorial on different political economists such as Malthus, Ricardo, and Bentham for the general public. It was her first piece to receive widespread acclaim. She continued to write for the Repository, earning accolades, including three essay prizes from the Unitarian Association. Her work with the Repository established her as a successful writer.